Smith was the only Knicks player not to appear in Tuesday night's 108-98 loss, as Jeremy Tyler, Cole Aldrich and the rest of his bench mates all saw minutes in garbage time in the second game of a back-to-back.

Knicks are 0-4 on the road on the second night of back-to-backs this season.

After Smith compiled 14 points against the Sixers and 10 against the Suns on a combined 10-of-19 shooting to help the Knicks capture their fourth and fifth consecutive wins, respectively, it seemed as if the troubled and streaky shooter was starting to turn a corner.

And as TheWall Street Journal's Chris Herring notes, the benching comes at an odd time considering Smith's improved play:

Irony of the benching, if its truly abt bball reasons, is that JR coulda been benched forever ago. But he'd finally started playing better.